New NASA images give fresh view of “Hand of God” nebula

Nicknamed the “Hand of God,” this object called a pulsar wind nebula is seen in a high-energy X-ray image. (NASA)

The “Hand of God” nebula is nothing new.

In the short-term, it has been around since NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory released photos of a pulsar wind nubula known as PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short) in April 2009. In the longer term, even though scientists say it is a “young” nebula, it is 17,000 light years away.

A pulsar is the corpse of a star that died in a supernova explosion. The pulsar spins around at seven times per second, firing a particle wind into the material ejected in that explosion. These particles interact with magnetic fields around the material, causing it to glow with X-rays. (The pulsar itself can’t be seen.)

In the 2009 photos, the nubula cloud looked like an open hand. But NASA notes:

“The hand actually shrinks in the NuSTAR image, looking more like a fist, as indicated by the blue color. The northern region, where the fingers are located, shrinks more than the southern part, where a jet lies, implying the two areas are physically different.”

NASA said the red cloud at the end of the finger region is a different structure, called RCW 89. The agency says astronomers think the pulsar’s wind is “heating the cloud, causing it to glow with lower-energy X-ray light.”

The big question that scientists are still working on whether the whole structure is actually shaped like a hand or whether it’s an optical illusion.

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